Storm’s Kosmachuk and McGinn worthy of Team Canada consideration

They might be just a blip at this point, but Scott Kosmachuk and Brock McGinn are at least on Hockey Canada's radar screen for this year's world junior team.

Earlier this week Kosmachuk and McGinn were selected to play for Team OHL in the Subway Series game against Team Russia in Oshawa on Nov. 21. Teammate Matt Finn will also be on that squad.

Truth be told, a couple of other Storm players likely earned consideration if it was based solely on merit.

While a Subway Series appearance doesn't guarantee an invite to the final selection camp for Canada's world junior team in December, it certainly increases your chances.

There are a lot of players across the country that will face the Russians on their six-game tour. But given that it is Hockey Canada that has a huge hand in selecting the teams, it shows that they at least recognize McGinn and Kosmachuk as worthy of a look-see against international competition.

Finn has been on Hockey Canada's radar for a while now. He attended their evaluation camp last summer and is likely to at least get an invite to the final camp. He has been steady as a rock all season at both ends of the ice.

But Kosmachuk and McGinn are relatively new to the party. Both solid, dependable players in the past, both have blossomed as 19-year-olds, the preferred age for members of Canada's world junior squad.

As Storm coach Scott Walker said recently, Kosmachuk skates and shoots like a pro, now the rest of his game is coming together. While initial perception is that Kosmachuk is a purely offensive player, he has been much more responsible in his own end this year and leads the team with a plus-20 rating, second best in the entire Ontario Hockey League behind Kingston defenceman Roland McKeown.

McGinn fits the mould of a couple of other former Guelph Storm players who represented Canada on the world junior stage: Dan Paille and Dwayne Hay.

Like McGinn, Paille and Hay were mid-sized players who could skate like the wind and hit like trucks. They could score, but that was more a byproduct of their overall game as it was their modus operandi.

McGinn is one of those players who would be able to play on any one of Team Canada's four lines, in varying roles, and do well at any of them.

It is unlikely Finn, Kosmachuk and McGinn would all be invited to the final evaluation camp—remember, there are about 90 Canadian Hockey League players taking part in the Subway Series—but I wouldn't be surprised to see two of them get an invitation.

Tony Saxon covers the Guelph Storm for the Mercury. Follow him on Twitter at #SaxonOnTheStorm and check out his blog at www.guelphmercury.com. He can be reached at tsaxon@guelphmercury.com